The eighth year of the BITEIN Awards took place on the 16th of Dec, 2017 at Courtyard Marriot, Mumbai at 7.30 PM. The event was done in conjunction with the Digident conference and as always, ten awards were given away in the usual ten categories. In addition, the winner and the runner up for an Essay comptetion were given away at the event.

The winners this year were Dr. Sharad Kokate for Administrative Excellence, Dr. Dhoom Singh Mehta for the Outstanding Teacher, Dr. Ravindra Khatanhar for Corporate Excellence, Dr. Javied Khan for Beyond Dentistry, Dr. Moez Khakhiani for Dentistry Imprinted, Dr. Pravin Shetty for Dental Research, Dr. Udatta Kher for Clinician of the year, Dr. Shiv Shankar for Technical Finnesse, Dr. Aditi Sarin of Manipal COllege of Dentistry for the best PG and Dr. Tanvi Malankar of M.G.M Navi Mumbai for the best UG.

The entertainment was from Bollywood with the theme set as the "Joie de Vivre of Bollywood" presented by a four man band live orchestra and Mona and Vaishali belting out the numbers along with Sameer. They started with a couple of numbers from the sixties "Kajra mohabbat waala" and "Roop tere mastana, pyare mera deewana". Afte the first three awards were given they came back and regalled the audience with the all time hits of yesteryears "Albela". The singers rolled out "Bholi soorat dil ke khote" and "Shola jo bhadke" which got the audience dancing on stage. Prominent were Mr. Niranjan Thakur and Maria Csillag.

The judges for the PG awards were Dr. Neel Ashar and Dr. Arnawaz Havewaala while the judges for the UG awards were Dr. Himanshu Ajwani and Dr. Vaibhav Kumar. The nominees for the UG awards were Dr. Kewal Shroff, Dr. Shreelakshmi Pradeep, Dr. Mili Mehta, Dr. Noora Pathan and Dr. Tanvi Malankar. The nominees for the PG awards were Dr. Saquib Mulla, Dr. Humeera Mulla, Dr. Jayshree Rijwani, Dr. Rahmat Ishana and Dr. Aditi Sarin. All the nominees received a certificate while one each from the two groups won the trophy.

The occasion was graced by a widespread international dental community comprising of Dr.Maria Csillag from Hungary, Dr. Marina Dormacheva from Russia, Dr. Francois Duret and his wife Elizabeth from France, Dr. Daniel Vasconcelos from Belgium, Mr. Massimo Ivani from Italy and Mr. Marc Gryspeerdt from Belgium. Indian achievers of repute who gave away awards were Mr. Niranjan Thakur, Mrs. Jyoti Thakur principal of Jai Hind college, renowned gazal singer Ms Penaz Masani, Mr.Tinu Verma director/actor/producer of the Bollywood Industry, Mr. Subhash Harjai business man from Mumbai and Mr. Vinod Chopra industrialist from Nashik. Dr.Devchand Gala and Mrs. Gala were also present for the awards specifically for the UG section.

Interspersed between the awards were more foot tapping numbers. The singers played out "Aa Jaa Aa Jaa, main huun pyar tera" and "Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche har zubaan par". The next pair of songs were marathi numbers "Paani thaem thaem gada" and "Aika daajeeba, aika dajeeba".

Dr. Sharad Kokate was honored with the Administrative Excellence trophy by Dr. Francios Duret, the original creator of the Intra Oral Scanner concept and Mr. Subhash Harjai who manages an IT corporation. Dr.Dhoom Singh Mehta received the Outstanding Teachers Award from Dr. Maria Csillag and Mrs Jyoti Thakur. Dr. Ravindra Khatanhar was given the Corporate Enterpreuner award by Mr. Marc Gryspeerdt, CEO of Metrics in Balance and Mr. Vinod Chopra an industrialist from Nashik. Dr. Udatta Kher received the award from Eng. Massimo Ivani of Italy and Mr. Niranjan Thakur a businessman in Mumbai. Dr. Javied Khan was felicitated with the Beyond Dentistry award by Dr. Daniel Vasconcelos from Belgium and renowned ghazal artist Ms Penaz Masani. Dr. Shiv Shankar received the Technical Finnesse award from Mr.Harsh Suba of HUL and Dr. D.G.Pol.

The BITEIN awards nite also featured two special certificates being given away for the best two essays in an Essay competetion for dentists which was supported by BITEIN. The best essay certificate was presented to Dr. Samarth Chellani and the runner up was given to Dr. Sumita Bhagwat. The entire essay competetion was planned and implemented by Dr. Vaibhav Kumar who is an Associate Editor with BITEIN.

Dr. Pravin Shetty received the Dental Research award from Dr.Marina Dormacheva of 3D SMiles Russia and Mr. Tinu Verma of Bollywood fame. Dr. Moez Khakhiani was honored with the "Dentistry Imprinted" award by Mrs. Elizabeth Duret from France. Dr. Prakash Bhatia gave away the best PG award to Dr.Aditi Sarin while the best UG award was received by Dr. Tanvi Malankar at the hands of Dr. Devchand Gala and Dr.Shailesh Divecha, a past president of the ISOI and the IAACD.

The program concluded with thanks to all the sponsors Hindustan Lever, Illusions and the Rushabh Gala Foundation.